A mum has warned other parents that their children are potentially being exposed to inappropriate content via a viral toy book series that is being sold to kids.
Mini Brands are a collectable miniature replicas of real life things created by the toy company ZURU. You can get anything from fridges that you fill with tiny foods, to tiny household appliances, to books and more.
They come in blind box style capsules and have gone viral on social media with lots of content creators doing unboxings and reviews of the products.
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Seems harmless enough, if not a bit of an expensive trend we have to shell out for when our kids want to join in but isn’t everything these days?! But what parents are now realising is that the mini books that can be bought can be read for the first page and some of them are not child appropriate.
The books included are some favourites such as Matilda and The Secret Garden and classics like Dracula and Wuthering Heights but also some Colleen Hoover books which shouldn’t be for kids’ eyes.
Each capsule contains three books with ‘readable pages’ according to the website, a mini magnifying glass to help you read the tiny print as well as other accessories.
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Parents warn about inappropriate books included in Mini Brands
One mum took to TikTok to warn other parents about these books after her daughter was exposed to sexual content from reading the first page of one of the Colleen Hoover books.
The mum said that the evening after she bought the toy for her daughter, the seven year old came to her and said: ‘I can’t read this book anymore it’s inappropriate’.
She wondered what exactly she meant, thinking she had seen a ‘silly’ word that may seem inappropriate to a seven year old, like ‘stupid’ or ‘butt’. But she was shocked when she looked at the book and read ‘I was enjoying his hand on my boob’.
‘I was in shock that this was in a book that was meant for children,’ the mum said, telling viewers that she hadn’t thought to look at what the book was as it was a Mini Brands toy ‘in the children’s section’. The books that the little girl had got in the capsule were Sherlock Holmes, Moby Dick and the offending book, Without Merit by Colleen Hoover which is an ‘adult book’, containing the inappropriate words right on the first page.
@basic_mom_moments I’m literally speechless. 🚩 Check your kids' Mini Brands books, parents. I cannot believe what I just read in a toy for my 7-year-old. @ZURU @Target please explain this. #Parenting #MiniBrands #momlife #Target #fyp ♬ original sound – the_real_tamtam
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People took to the comments with many saying that Mini Brands are collectables and not for kids, but they are sold in toy stores everywhere, even in Ireland, and parents who aren’t really familiar with them would have no qualms in purchasing them for their kids.
They are also marked as being for ages three and up on the packaging.
‘Are these sold in the toy isle? If so, completely inappropriate,’ one person asked in the comments and someone else said: ‘Colleen Hoover is NOT a children’s book author, why would they collab with her for a 3 and up toy.’
Another parent whose daughter had read the same book took to Reddit to warn parents, saying: ‘I’m not too thrilled and I guess I’ll just continue giving her my doubles after I read the pages first now. This could be WAY worse, I know. But Zuru really needs to rethink what they’re sending out and advertising for children.’
